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Staff Recommendations A listing of current favorites, recommended by the bookstore staff. Check back for new recommendations each month as we bring you the best of what we're reading. Browse by title, author or staff member!   Anah   |  Andy   |  Don   |  Elaine   |  Elaine Kahn   |  Garrett   |  Gent   |  Jeff   |  Jolene   |  Layla   |  Linda   |  Lawrence   |  Maia   |  Matt   |  Nancy   |  Paul   |  Peter   |  Scott   |  Stacey   |  Tân   |  Vanessa

1 2 3 4 5 6 >>>     sort list by title | author | publication date Ghost Moth Michele Forbes A beauty of a novel, Irish writer Michele Forbes delves deep into consequences of unrequited love. Brought to you by the enigmatic Bellevue Literary Press, a publishing house curiously based in NYC's infamous Bellevue Hospital. One of their previous books was Paul Harding's unforgettable Tinkers. — Recommended by Stacey, City Lights Books By Blood A Novel Ellen Ullman It's the chaotic 70s in San Francisco, summer home to a disgraced professor who rents an office space next to a psychiatrist. An unused conjoining door made of something like particle board—along with a patient's demand that the doctor's distracting sound machine be shut off —allow the academic to obsessively eavesdrop on those sessions... The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia Philip Lamantia, Garrett Caples, Andrew Joron, Nancy J. Peters Many poets have contributed to the greatness of City Lights, but few more so than North Beach's own Philip Lamantia (1927-2005). Lamantia published his earliest work in avant-garde magazines when he was 15, then at 16 went to NYC to join the war-exiled Paris surrealists. Known as the foremost American surrealist, he also... Spillover Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic David Quammen Ebola, SARS, Hendra, AIDS, and countless other deadly viruses all have one thing in common: the bugs that transmit these diseases all originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. In this gripping account, David Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases... Moondog The Viking of 6th Avenue Robert Scotto Moondog was, without a doubt, one of the most intriguing human beings on the planet. A blind, homeless composer who made his own clothing and instruments, he was a self-proposed "viking" and a total enigma who roamed the streets of New York. Nonetheless, he wrote brilliant compositions and, ultimately, broadened the horizons of classical music... Brief Encounters with the Enemy Fiction Saïd Sayrafiezadeh Sayrafiezadeh follows his memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free (2010), with an arresting fiction debut that chronicles modern, nameless cities crumbling in the shadows of war. These eight stories offer first-person accounts of alienated men seeking significance, who view war as an opportunity for escape or adventure. I'm Your Man The Life of Leonard Cohen Sylvie Simmons Beautifly written, impossible to put down, and an absolute must for any Cohen fan! Or, for that matter, for any fan of the worlds of travel, religion and poetry, as well as the inner workings of the music industry. Cohen was such an interesting man... NW A Novel Zadie Smith Zadie Smith's new book is playful, psychogeographically rich, sometimes messy, dark, and has a wicked stiletto of an ending. Most of all, its subtleties hold up under the mulling over after you've finished reading it. A smart look at the complexities... The Blind Man's Garden A Novel Nadeem Aslam The acclaimed author of The Wasted Vigil now gives us a searing, exquisitely written novel set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11: a story of war, of one family's losses, and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses... Where the Heart Beats John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists Kay Larson In this stunning biography of John Cage, Larson investigates how Buddhist concepts shaped Cage's approach to art, and the influence it had on other artists of his era (ie. Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, etc.). If you're a fan of Cage, you will... The Space Between Trees Katie Williams Evie's not sure why she started lying to the girls at school about her friendship with Jonah, her fellow paper route employee. Jonah is older, a college dropout with broad shoulders, a streak of scarlet in his hair, and mystery in his eyes... His Dark Materials The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman Has that quality shared by all great books, in that it reveals new things about itself and you with every re-read. As a bonus, it will also make you cry like a baby each time (or is that just me?) —Recommended by Vanessa, City Lights Books Massacre River René Philoctète By the acclaimed Haitian poet and scholar René Philoctète, the novel Massacre River: "a tour de force by an extraordinary writer" (Edwidge Danticat). Nestled along a border, Haitians and Dominicans have lived as one people for generations. But in... Turbulence Samit Basu A wild ride. —Recommended by Tân, City Lights Books 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>>